Mobile communication devices, such as mobile phones or personal digital assistants (PDA), may use an audible alert to remind a user that the device has received an incoming message. For example, a cell phone may beep when a voice message is received, or a PDA may play a certain tone when a text message is received. Typically, these audible alerts continue to sound at a certain interval until the user listens to the voice mail or reads the text message. Alternatively, the device may sound an audible alert only once after the message is received.
If the user does not listen to the message immediately, continued audible alerts can become bothersome to the user or to people nearby. For instance, a user may leave a cell phone at a desk while at lunch. If, during this time, a voice message is received, co-workers in the vicinity of the user's desk may become annoyed by the continual alert reminders.
A solution to this problem is to simply disable the alert reminder when the phone is left unattended. While this may serve to prevent others from being bothered, this solution suffers from a number of disadvantages. In particular, the alert needs to be repeatedly enabled and disabled at various times throughout the day. Additionally, a user may forget to enable the alert reminder and as a result he or she may miss messages that have been received but not reviewed.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a system that sounds an alert reminder associated with a communication device at times when the user of the device can be assumed to be in the presence of the device and as a result able to review his or her messages. Furthermore, it would be desirable to have an alert reminder system that minimizes the bothersome effect that its audible alerts may have on people other than the user of the device.